Rooster Cogburn (character)

Fictional character biography

Reuben Cogburn was born on July 15, 1825. Cogburn was a veteran of the American Civil War who served under Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill, where he lost his eye. He was married first to Illinois woman who left him to return to her first husband after bearing Cogburn a single, extremely clumsy son, Horace, (of whom Cogburn says, "He never liked me anyway"). Cogburn is described as a "fearless, one-eyed U.S. marshal who never knew a dry day in his life." He was "the toughest marshal" working the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) on behalf of Judge Isaac Parker, the real-life judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas (having criminal jurisdiction in the Indian Territory, as the bailiff repeatedly announces in both films). Cogburn shot a total of 64 men in eight years, killing 60 (not counting the men he killed after the first film of Rooster Cogburn, as then it would have been 70 shot and 66 killed). He killed 23 in four years and 60 by eight, all of whom he claimed to have killed in self-defense, in the line of duty, or fleeing justice.

In the 1969 film, Cogburn helped a headstrong 14-year-old girl, named Mattie Ross (Kim Darby), along with Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Glen Campbell), to track down Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), the man who drunkenly killed her father. In the sequel, he teamed up with elderly spinster Eula Goodnight (Katharine Hepburn) and an Indian boy named Wolf (Richard Romancito) while on the trail of the desperado, Hawk (Richard Jordan), who had stolen a shipment of nitroglycerin from the U.S. Army and killed family members of both Goodnight and Wolf.

Cogburn lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas in the back of a Chinese dry-goods store, along with the proprietor, his friend and gambling buddy Chen Lee, and an orange tabby cat named after Confederate General Sterling Price for his entire life as a marshal.

In the 2010 film, while Cogburn demonstrated a ruthless attitude towards the criminals and fugitives he pursued, he was generally very fair with Mattie and was shown to have a distaste for what he viewed as unnecessary cruelty. When LaBoeuf is birching Mattie for her refusal to return to Fort Smith, Cogburn demanded that he stop, and drew his pistol in threat to make LaBoeuf stop. Later in the film, when Cogburn and Mattie witnessed two children caning a mule with sharpened sticks, Cogburn quickly intervened, cutting the mule loose and roughly throwing the two children onto the ground in retaliation. After Mattie was snakebitten, he rode through the night, holding her, in order to get her medical care. When the horse collapsed, he mercy-killed it with his revolver and then carried her a long distance in his arms to get her to a doctor, both saving her life and proving he really had the true grit Mattie thought he did.

Cogburn's relationship with LaBoeuf was strained throughout the film, with the two arguing frequently. Cogburn often made light of the Texas Rangers, much to LaBoeuf's outrage, and irritatedly criticized LaBoeuf's tendency to talk long-windedly. Likewise, LaBoeuf patronized Cogburn for being an ineffective drunk who routinely relents to Mattie's stubbornness. Their greatest point of contention came during an argument about their military service during the American Civil War, during which Cogburn ended their agreement of splitting the reward on Tom Chaney when they brought him back to Texas when LaBoeuf insulted Capt Quantrill. He did, however, thank LaBoeuf for saving his life when "Lucky" Ned Pepper was about to kill him and said he was in his debt before leaving with the snakebitten Mattie and promising to send help back.

In both True Grit films, Cogburn confessed to having robbed something after the war before becoming a marshal, a bank in his youth in the 2010 film, and a federal paymaster in the 1969. He spoke admiringly of Quantrill, with whom he served during the Civil War. Twenty-five years after the Tom Chaney hunt, Little Frank (Mattie's younger brother) wrote Mattie Ross a letter with a flyer enclosed saying Rooster Cogburn was travelling with a Wild West show. Unfortunately, Cogburn died three days before she arrived while the show was still in Jonesboro, Arkansas and was buried in a Memphis, Tennessee Confederate cemetery. When Mattie arrived in Memphis and learned of his death, she had his body removed to her family farm plot in Yell County Arkansas and has visited it over the years. His gravestone shows his full name to be Reuben Cogburn, a fact which he gave freely in the 2010 version of the film (and in the 1975 sequel to the original movie before that).